Government not ready to declare MH370 lost - Najib

The Malaysian government is not ready to declare the missing Malaysian Airlines MH370 aircraft as lost, even after six weeks of not being able to locate it.

Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said that the government is not ready to do so out of respect of the next of kin of the 239 passengers and crew on board the flight.

“Right now, I think I need to take into account the feelings of the next of kin. And some of them have said publicly that they're not willing to accept it until they find hard evidence,” he said in an exclusive interview with CNN.

However, Najib admits that it is difficult to think otherwise.

The interview was conducted by the channel’s aviation correspondent, Richard Quest.

A month ago, on 24 March, Najib had announced that the Boeing 777-200 had ended it’s journey at the southern Indian Ocean to the west of Pert, Australia, in an area that was isolated and far from land. The conclusion had been made based on satellite data by Inmarsat.

Malaysia Airlines then announced that the aircraft is assumed to be missing with no survivors. It was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members.

In the interview with CNN, Najib said what had happened as “bizarre” and “which none of us could have contemplated” how an aircraft that was bound for Beijing could arrive halfway towards Antarctica?

According to Najib, he had asked the investigating team many times if they were confident of the final position of the aircraft and they said “We are as sure as we can possibly be”.

Najib had also said that the government will release an initial report relating to the missing aircraft next week. The report has been sent to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) which sits under the United Nations (UN).

Asked if Malaysia had mishandled the search efforts, Najib stressed that the authorities were faced with an unprecedented incident and any country would have faced the same challenges.

He also admitted that Malaysia had done well although mistakes were made at the early stages especially in the aspect of communications.

Najib also confirmed that military radar had detected an aircraft had made a turn back across Peninsular Malaysia.

“Now, the military radar, the primary radar, has some capability. It tracked a - an aircraft, which did a turn back. But they were not sure - exactly sure whether it was MH370. What they were sure of was that the aircraft was not deemed to be hostile,” he said.

Search efforts for MH370, now entering the 49th day without and clear clues or found debris, are now being focused at the southern Indian Ocean.